Highlights of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s FCB.tv chat session

FCBayernNews · News fetcher Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 1328 votes: 2

06.10.2006

It was high noon on Friday at Säbener Strasse. After a break of nearly three years fcbayern.de hosted a live chat session, with the chief executive of FC Bayern in person, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, opening the live chat season.

The interest from Bayern fans was huge, with more than 500 questions received during the half-hour session – although obviously Rummenigge was only ably to answer a small selection. However, we’ve put together for you the most important comments of the Bayern boss.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on…

…the forthcoming matches: “I hope that we can resolve the problems that we’ve encountered in the past two away matches. We must rediscover quickly our traditional strengths in order to succeed in the hurly-burly of the Bundesliga. For that we have to go to work in a more focused and committed way and with the mental strength that will enable us to achieve our ambitions for the season.”

…the target for the Champions’ League: “Our goal is now to win the group and play the first leg of the round of 16 away from home, which would be a great advantage. That is our first target, and after that we’ll see. I think it’s important not to set the bar too high for ourselves in the Champions’ League.”

…the current goalscoring drought: “I’m not one who believes in criticising the forwards alone if we don’t score enough goals. It’s a fact that strikers need to have chances created for them. Therefore I think it’s up to the whole team to play more imaginatively and to make better opportunities for the strikers. The same thing applies in defence, where it’s up to the strikers to lend a hand at the back.”

…the abortive transfer of Owen Hargreaves to Manchester: “The offer we received was certainly very good, but there were two reasons why we did not accept it. First, he is an extremely important player with a terrific talent for the position in front of the defence. I think he’s the best player in Europe in this position. Secondly, there was a tax problem. We would have received 25 million euros, and even if we had reinvested some of it in transfer fees, we would still have been left with a surplus of between 15 and 20 million euros, on which we would have had to pay tax. So we would have lost a good player and had to pay a lot of tax, without any guarantee of having found an adequate replacement. The decision we came to was for the best.”

…the arrival of Mark van Bommel: “He is a very good player and a terrific guy, a personality with style and authority. He is straightforward, very courteous, and as we have seen with his decision about the Dutch national team, an extremely consistent person.”

…Sebastian Deisler and Andreas Görlitz: “Both of them have had to spend a long time on the sidelines, and it’s important that they make a full recovery. We are very hopeful that both will rediscover their old class and ability. We need both players very much indeed.”

…Julio dos Santos: “He has not made any appearances so far, and we will be watching the situation in the coming months. It makes no sense to retain a player simply to sit on the bench. Especially when he comes from South America, if he doesn’t make a breakthrough. We will possible have to deal with this during the winter break, perhaps by letting him go out on loan to gain match fitness and show how good a player he is.”

…the possible recruitment of Franck Ribery: “We were very interested in him during the summer but we were rebuffed by Olympique Marseille. He is an interesting player, as we saw during the World Cup, where his star was certainly on the rise. We will keep an eye on him ion the hope that it may work out at some point to bring him to Bayern.”

…his plans for the future: “I have no plans. Uli Hoeness has taken the decision to succeed Franz Beckenbauer as president in three years’ time. I hope that we will in some way be able to replace him in the executive team, because Uli has been an extremely important person for the team for more than 25 years. It will not be easy. Right now, I don’t know what we will do. But my philosophy is that we can never know what will happen in two or three years. I let things arrive in their own time.”